“When in England I met many Oxford and Cambridge men. What impressed me as admirable in England was the English quiet, contented life. In Japan politically we are aristocratic, but in all the social relations we are democratic. The wife educates our servants to be really interested in their duties. We, the Japanese, are not very rich, we do not count the men by their money, but by their worth; any man is admitted to the best society who is worthy of it. Japan is the most deceptive country externally; you scarcely meet a single lady, or gentleman in the street, so you do not meet them on the cars or the parks. A Japanese lady sends for her goods to the house, a promiscuous crowd alone meets you so that you rarely come in contact with the well-bred people of the country. So it is also the undesirable people who go to America, oftentimes either in misfortune financially through the fault of others, he is preparing himself by an industrious life in a foreign country, and often he is trying to retrieve his life or that of his family. Hotel boys and servants come back and take useful places here, the better for their experience.
“Among the great men who moulded my ideals in America, I wanted to study the religious institutions and influence in the United States, so I went to all the churches while in Boston, Roman Catholic, Congregational, Swedenborgian, Episcopalian, Baptist, and Parker’s Memorial, and met all classes of preachers, theologians, and ethical teachers. I was in public school in Boston in 1872, when the public school was at its best. That gave me the strong force to come back into the battle of life, and from the mingling with negroes and emigrants, I learned life. I knew Longfellow and Holmes and spent two summers with him at Beverly Farm. Robert C. Winthrop was also my friend, and was also a great help to me. Through his kindness, Judge Holmes gave me more material to cultivate my mind perhaps than any other American. President Eliot was of course an inspiration and two of my pleasantest memories are visits to James G. Blaine at Bar Harbor and President Cleveland at “Gray Gables”.”
In closing, as the sun was setting over Tokio and filling the vast salle of the Exposition Administration offices with twilight, the delicate and earnest face of the speaker flashed now with humor, now with seriousness and pathos as he spoke of the present relation of Japan and America, serious it is, when loose tongues speak of that most awful thing,—war. “We try to weigh the past, present and future, and we are sure that soon the temporary strain will be relieved,” said the earnest voice,—“ever since the restoration in 1868 America has been our friend and we remember it; it has been a friendship cemented with our growth.”
EXPOSITION NOTES
A jinriksha ride through the picturesque streets of Tokyo about two to two and a half miles from Shimbashi Station brings you to the Aoyama Parade ground, which, with the Imperial Park forms the site of the Exposition of 1912. From corners of the grounds and a temporary station, trains will leave for and come from all parts of the Empire. This place, now perfectly bare, will show the result of Japanese genius and invention in a short time. On one side is the park of the Crown Prince’s palace, and at another corner is a military university, which will be removed. The ground here is high and the air very fresh and invigorating, as it is in an open part of the city, and it will remain a permanent park after the Exposition. The work on the ground begins early in 1908.
Tokyo alone is most interesting in its street sights; the children at their games, a baby asleep in the shop, a lovely vision, two old people weighed down with their burdens, pilgrims in quaint garb, the boys and girls returning from school with knapsacks full of books, arms over each others’ shoulders, bright-eyed girls out for amusement or to pay visits, the big milk carts and street vendors, the portable kitchens, around which some are taking an evening meal, the flower wagons, the horses with their bright accoutrements, the strange calls, the pathetic blind beggars, all mingle in the city’s drama! The road from the parade ground is lined with parks and villas, passing we see many gay singing children. We go through the deeper lanes and hedges to the park which we enter by an avenue of truly imperial trees, pine trees, and groves also of maples and shrubs, 120 acres, rented from the Imperial household, paths of delightful vistas, mystery and woods full of charm, a sylvan paradise, hilly, rolling, full of possibilities of gardening, near Tokyo Bay.
Dr. Fukuichi, the chief engineer of Japan, is the Chairman of the Committee for the buildings and is now engaged on the plans. The gardening and electricity, each best authority, has been appointed. Mr. Fuwa is the Director of the Imperial Horticultural department and is the chairman of the Committee on Gardening. The buildings will be unique,—five departments, education, science, electricity, manufactory.
The Governments of the world have been requested to build in the style of their own country. Viscount Kaneko emphasizes that every nation should incorporate its own architecture in the structures. “We hope,” thus he says, “that our ideas of architecture will be revolutionized.” There will be large hotels constructed in different cities of Japan and many new ones in Tokyo, as the houses already here are by no means adequate.